[OSList] : Speech acts

[Harrison Owen]

Actually Dan - it is and always has been a serious joke, with (I think) a
wonderful internal contradiction. If you were really prepared to be
surprised, you couldn't be surprised... or could you J

 

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From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Daniel Mezick
Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2013 9:18 AM
To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Subject: [OSList] : Speech acts

 

When responding to Jenifer's thoughts earlier, I realized:

The slogan "Be Prepared to Be Surprised" is a most interesting one in OST. 

It is actually an illocutionary speech act.... of type "Directive".

So, located here in OST, baked into it, we have a specific slogan that is
attempting to cause the hearer to take a particular action, e.g. a request,
commands and advice. A directive!

I wonder if the undeniably directive structure of "Be Prepared to Be
Surprised" really aligned with the intention/spirit/philosophy of OST.

Dan


Background links:

What is a speech act? 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_acts
A speech act in linguistics <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics>  and
the philosophy of language
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_language>  is an utterance that
has performative function in language and communication.

What is an illocutionary act?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illocutionary_act
Illocutionary act is a term in linguistics
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics>  introduced by the philosopher
John L. Austin <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Austin>  in his
investigation of the various aspects of speech acts
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_acts> . 

What is a Directive illocutionary act?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illocutionary_act#Classes_of_illocutionary_acts
directives = speech acts that are to cause the hearer to take a particular
action, e.g. requests, commands and advice

More than you asked for:
What is a Commissive speech act?
commissives = speech acts that commit a speaker to some future action, e.g.
promises and oaths

















On 10/24/13 1:29 PM, Jenifer Toksvig wrote:

Dan wrote: >> Consider the man who loves a certain woman, and waits for the
current trend of her interest in him to change. He is goal seeking without
controlling. Likewise, trend-following market traders do not attempt to
create, control or make trends. They simply identify & ride them, while
seeking wealth. <<

Waiting and seeking are still forms of controlling. Your loving man has
chosen to wait for his goal rather than (to coin a phrase) being prepared to
be surprised by another woman. He may not be trying to control her, but he's
still trying to control the situation in a way that he thinks will allow him
to achieve his goal.

Those who seek wealth do likewise: they don't randomly ride the trends, they
identify them and make choices about how to ride them, in order to obtain
wealth. That is control.

I don't think it's possible to be goal-oriented and try to exert some kind
of control over the process, unless your goal is. to have no goal. Actually,
even being prepared to be surprised is a goal. A sort of wonderfully
ridiculous one.

Jen x

Jenifer Toksvig
www.acompletelossforwords.com

The Copenhagen Interpretation
www.thecopenhageninterpretation.co.uk






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